The U.S. attorney submits a court document detailing the meeting between himself and the Manatee County sheriff.
By GRAHAM BRINK
Published October 9, 2004
TAMPA - A federal prosecutor fired back Friday at Manatee County Sheriff Charlie Wells for accusing him of extortion.
The latest reaction came in a 26-page court document filed in conjunction with a lawsuit that assistant U.S. attorney Jeffrey Del Fuoco brought against Wells and his office last year.
In the papers filed Friday, Del Fuoco recounted a meeting in August between himself, Wells and their attorneys to discuss the lawsuit. At that meeting, Del Fuoco told Wells he had evidence that the sheriff may have violated state campaign finance laws. Wells later accused Del Fuoco of trying to extort him through the accusation, interpreting it to mean that if he didn't settle the lawsuit, the complaint would be sent to the Florida Elections Commission and state prosecutors.
Del Fuoco said Friday that he only wanted to give Wells a chance to self-report the allegations, which could benefit the sheriff during any punishment stage if the allegations were proven true.
"His extortion allegations were ludicrous and preposterous," Del Fuoco said. "I never tried to extort him. He was trying to muscle me into not revealing the finding of our investigations in this case."
Wells said he and Del Fuoco didn't talk about him self-reporting the alleged violations for his own benefit. Instead, Del Fuoco was trying to extort him in the middle of his re-election campaign.
"First, they are lying if they say the conversation was about me self-reporting," Wells said Friday. "Second, the elections allegations are bogus and he knows that."
In his original lawsuit, Del Fuoco accused the Sheriff's Office of retaliating against him for successfully prosecuting six members of the Sheriff's Office's Delta Task Force antidrug unit in 1999 and 2000 on charges that included conspiracy to violate civil rights, witness tampering and planting evidence.
The lawsuit said the office illegally ran Del Fuoco's auto license plates through a state database. A few months later, Del Fuoco added to the allegations, accusing the Sheriff's Office of illegally surveilling his home and family.
Del Fuoco has said in court documents that certain members of the Sheriff's Office held a grudge against him and were capable of setting him up or doing harm to him or his family.
The Sheriff's Office acknowledged it ran Del Fuoco's plates. Officials said they could not say why, but maintained it was for law enforcement purposes.
Del Fuoco said Friday that it is about time Sheriff Wells gave the nature of the purpose. "What type of legitimate purpose could it be for?" he asked.
